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Star-Ledger — A shield law held hostage

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is anything but a bleeding-heart liberal. So what is he doing sponsoring legislation that would protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources in federal courts? Protect

The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.August 01, 2008

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is anything but a bleeding-heart liberal. So what is he doing sponsoring legislation that would protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources in federal courts? Protecting both the public's and the government's right to know. Just as so-called “shield” laws currently do in the courts of 49 states.

But although a federal shield law overwhelmingly passed the House some time ago and was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee 15-4, Senate Republicans have blocked its consideration.

They are parroting the Bush administration's empty argument that a shield law would undermine antiterrorism investigations by making it impossible to discover and prosecute dangerous leakers of classified information.

This is false. Specter and other senators have revised the bill several times to make it clear that prosecutors with good reason won't have a problem convincing a federal judge to suspend a shield for news gatherers.

The Bush administration and its allies don't like judges. Their view is that the wearers of black robes too often side with the public instead of the spies, never mind that the writers of the Constitution created an independent federal judiciary to provide precisely this sort of check on executive power.

America's founders wisely believed that the more citizens knew about how their government operates, the more protected American democracy would be from corruption or dangerous power grabs by leaders. Shield laws further that protection by encouraging whistleblowers and others to speak out about wrongdoing. They won't speak, however, unless they have reasonable protection against retaliation from overzealous authorities.

Senate Republicans insist they won't even debate a shield law until the Senate considers legislation to allow more oil and gas drilling. The GOP should end the roadblock. Tying together these two unrelated issues is a serious disservice to the public.